This invention relates to a cladding, or in other words a clothing, of an exterior wall and/or the roof of a building, which comprises a plurality of elongate covering elements each having a greater length than width and each forming a profiled panel, the thickness of which is considerably smaller than said other dimensions thereof and preferably uniform throughout. These covering elements or panels may be made of metal, plastic or any other suitable material. For instance, they may be manufactured by profiling a thin but rather stiff sheet material, such as sheet metal or sheet plastic, or they may be produced by an extrusion process from extrudable metals or plastic.
More specifically the invention relates to a cladding of the kind referred to, in which adjacent panels overlap in the direction of their widths and have their longitudinal marginal portions interengaged in a hook-like manner along substantially their entire lengths, one of said longitudinal marginal portions of each panel forming a channel opening towards the front or outer side of the cladding, and the opposite longitudinal marginal portion thereof forming a channel opening towards the rear or inner side of the cladding, and in which the panels are supported by a plurality of spaced supporting rails extending over the surface to be covered in a direction intersecting the longitudinal directions of the panels themselves, said rails being at intervals, corresponding to the exposed widths of the panels, provided with series of fastener means for the attachment of the panels and for engagement with one longitudinal marginal portion of a related one of them.
It is to be understood that the hook-like interengagement of the longitudinal marginal portions of adjacent panels is an important factor in the provision of an exterior cladding for a building wall or roof which has for its main purpose to protect the structures behind or beneath it from rain, snow and heavy winds. Without such hook-like interengagement, the wind may too easily force itself or water through the joints between the panels.